Went fishing this weekend - Fri and Sat - got back early afternoon today - Sunday 23rd.
The trip was a family one where I wanted to introduce my kids also to fishing - we were 3 families - and I was the only one with the angling equipment. The trip promised to be a washout with the amount of rain that we've had in the southern part of the peninsula and Owen - I took your advice - prayed like crazy on Thursday...and man did that work !!!
Reached Bheemeshwari around 9:30 - the sun was shining and the weather seemed just perfect. The water was quite coloured though....almost like after the first bit of heavy rain in June.
Went for a walk upstream as usual with my spinning gear and my kids in tow

No luck at all...of course the complaining about the hot sun didnt help the cause
That evening - Devi (my eight year old) gets her hands on a Murrel for the first time

- caught by moi - at my usual pool opposite the camp.
Next morning - was totally shot....one of the newbies along with me - Anand caught a small silver.
Chapter 2 - Later that evening....or why I am beginning to hate Newbies
Later that evening.....Niri and I were first looking for Murrel opposite the camp and then settled down on a rock in the middle of the Camp pool by about 6pm...Niri was fairly frustrated by the fact that he had never caught a fish in his 2 fishing trips so far (or ever in his life) - of course I went on to tell him about the many many many trips that I have gone on without so much as a nibble - forget about catching a fish

.
Equipment : I was basically fishing using my spinning rod - 12 pound mono, and my Shimano spinning reel - as my equipment was divided across the group. Niri was holding onto my Abu Garcia Viper Uptider with 40 pound mono and a large Daiwa spinning reel.
More BS later we found our lines were hopelessly entangled and I decided I had taken enough of a chance with my tackle in that water and decided to pack up. Niri was also ready to leave when we decided to stick it out another 30 minutes.
SLAM !!!! Suddenly without any warning Niri's reel began to sing and how !!! He looked at the rod completely petrified and the Gillie and I were screaming at him to lift the rod and complete the hookset. He finally did and then of course the fish still kept running. I somehow managed to increase the drag as I had quite some confidence in the line and about 20 mins later he landed this absolute beauty....
Here's a shot I just couldnt get over -
This shot shows up the beauty's colour the best

The camp managers daughter wanted to take a photo with the fish and Siddaiah the gillie obliged - btw the Gillie was totally awesome !!!
Fish was properly weighed (using a sling at my insistence) and came in at 26.9 kgs - I am calling it a 60 after rounding off
Owen - thats a mussulah as well right ? Not sure about my identification capabilities here.
This morning I took a small mahseer on the spinner - seemed a bit unusual so I took a photo...is this what is called a Black mahseer ?